Ready for Widescreen gaming? Here are some nice choices -

**Mcstrange** · 05-04-07, 11:06 AM

I finally jumped from a pretty nice 19inch Viewsonic CRT to an LCD about a year and a half ago. I was a die hard 'screw those lcd things! CRT or bust!' kinda guys, but oh how I have changed my mind.

My beautiful wife got me a Dell 2405 24 inch widescreen monitor and let me tell you it has completely changed my computing life.
I don't have any idea how I played games prior to this monitor and recommend to anyone thinking about a new monitor to take a good hard look at getting a widescreen LCD monitor - the prices are right and the performance gets better and better every day.

I would suggest the sweet spot right now is probably the 22 inch models, at a resolution of 1680 x 1050 most midrange video cards can power them, and they provide plenty of desktop

The 19s are to short vertically imho, though at a resolution of 1440 x 900 pretty much any mainstream video cards can run one

The larger monitors start to require a lot of GPU power to run at 1920 x 1200 for 24 -27 inchers and 2560x1600 at 30 inches - You need a high end card to run the 24 inch resolution and the top of the graphics food chain to push the 4.09 million pixels the 30 inch models display...

By all means if you can afford the 30 inch and the graphics card(s) to power that bad boy I highly recommend it, gaming on the Dell 30 inch is about as close to nirvana as a PC geek can get.

The <a href=http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16824001096> SAMSUNG 226BW Black 22" 2 ms </a> maybe the perfect combination of performance and price out there. At just over 300 dollars, you get 2ms response, and brilliant color reproduction.
Is it THE Gamers Widescreen? I have not seen better numbers anywhere, and the reviews on newegg are outstanding.

I purchased a <a href=http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-4335>Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP 24 inch</a> for the wife to compliment my 2405. It is just beautiful and comes with a 5ms refresh rating. At prices as low at 570 it is a great monitor.

<a href=http://www.gateway.com/home/products/displays_landing.php?seg=hm> Gateway </a>makes some pretty nice widescreens for very low prices. I got my son the Gateway 22inch and have been very impressed with its performance.

Companies like <a href=http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010190020+50001146+ 1301919996&name=Acer+America>Acer</a> make some fairly economical choices in the widescreen market, but I would research individual models before you buy as you get what you pay for in cases like this and with your most important interface with your PC you dont want to get some crappy cheapo monitor.

More and more game devs are adding Widescreen support, and while EA is being stupid about it with the Battlefield line, Valve has jumped and allows for the full range of widescreen resolutions.
As you might have guessed, I am a widescreen gaming lover. As I said I highly recommend looking into it before purchasing your next monitor - your local bestbuy has several on display, including a couple from Gateway and Westinghouse for you to check out.

Here are some resources:
www.widescreengamingforum.com/
http://www.widescreengamer.com/
http://www.behardware.com/ (British website, by far the most extensive reviews of LCD monitors I have found)

**...bigdog...** · 05-04-07, 03:14 PM

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/...tors-compared/

Still, there are some limits here. First of all, while the format itself is ideal for video, few panels are really suited to the task. The video noise induced by the technology they use is a major stumbling block for wide monitors. Then, the response of 20" wide-format panels is not as good overall as that of standard 19" LCD displays. Up to now no 16:10 monitor was able to rival the ViewSonic VX922 for low latency. That's the reason why few gamers have moved from standard to wide displays. Finally, the price of wide-screen 20" monitors is still higher than for 5:4 displays. All these phenomena, taken together, explain why wide-screen 20" monitors have been less than successful up to now....

Conclusions
If I had to designate a winner, the Samsung 940BW would be my choice. It's the most flexible, nicely finished, and the most ergonomic. If your budget is tight, on the other hand, I advise you to look to the HP W19 for value you can count on.

But beyond those results, I need to point out the disquieting tendency for manufacturer specifications to deviate more and more from actual performance. This is nothing new. Manufacturers have always taken liberties with specifications. But with wide-screen 19" monitors, they are out of control. When you see two panels certified at 5 and 8 ms respectively when in both cases they actually schlep along at 20 ms, you can't help but get the feeling that we've reached a point of no return. Other manufacturers are more serious about specifications. And honesty about specifications is essential.

**HeavyG** · 05-05-07, 12:45 AM

Get the VX922. It isnt wide screen, but I think its pretty much the sweet spot for PC gaming. Native resolution of 1280x1024, so you can really kick up the detail and not have to worry about lag. Try that on the 1680x1050 and you will more than likely lag out.

Games look better with higher detail at lower resolution than with low detail at a higer resolution. Don't get confused by that statement... I am not referring to running a game at 800x600 with settings on highest. I am referring to running at 1280x1024 with all settings maxed, HDR full, AA and AF maxed. You would need a top of the line system to run 1680x1050 maxed and still get a reasonable FPS.

Lighting effects can often make or break a game. We have lucked out with the Source games having HDR come more available in CS and a standard in DOD. HDR brings a new realism to the game. Sure turning down shading and lighting effects can increase your FPS, but why go through all that? Why would you want to look at a 24 inches of ugly when you could look at 19 inches of beautiful? Is this making sense?

I am not saying you cant get a 24" screen to look nice, I am just saying you will need a lot of power behind it to make it look nice. If your system is classified as mid range, go for a smaller screen with a smaller native res.

That article bigdog posted is pretty dead on. Here is another that rates some standard 19" screens.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/03/...cd_collection/

The VX922 is the best monitor in terms of performance. Low latency (true 2ms response) and insanely sharp picture. I recommend this monitor more than any other on the market, mainly becuase it really is the highest rated gaming LCD out there. There are many regs here at TTP that use it, so dont just take my word.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824116375

**Gumby** · 05-05-07, 01:13 PM

I game on a VX922 and can tell you 100% that it is the best monitor I have ever had.
No ghosting whatsoever and a great picture, they are even pretty cheap these days.
As more and more games support widescreen resolutions, I will likely go to one of those.

**the Darkness** · 05-30-07, 02:37 PM

Family says death of 44-year-old New Zealander was due to unpaid bill

AP Associated Press
Updated: 10:41 a.m. ET May 30, 2007

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A 44-year-old woman who needed an electric oxygen pump to breathe died after an energy company cut the power to her home because of an unpaid bill, her family claimed Wednesday.

Police said they had launched an investigation into Folole Muliagaâ??s death, which happened within two hours of state-owned company Mercury Energy cutting power to her house Tuesday.

Mercury Energyâ??s general manager, James Moulder, said the company was devastated by the womanâ??s death and was conducting its own investigation to determine what happened. He refused to say how much money Muliaga had owed the company.

Muliaga, a schoolteacher with four children between the ages of 5 and 20, had been off work since February with an illness.

A Mercury Energy representative arrived on Tuesday at her home in the northern city of Auckland to disconnect the electricity, said Brenden Sheehan, Muliagaâ??s nephew-in-law.

â??Then he cut the power offâ??
Sheehan said both Muliaga and her son told the technician she was dependent on the oxygen machine to stay alive and invited him into the house to see it. â??Then he cut the power off,â? Sheehan told The Associated Press.

Muliaga began having difficulty breathing, became faint and then collapsed, he said. Paramedics were unable to revive her, and she was pronounced dead within two hours of the power being cut.

Moulder expressed his â??deep condolencesâ? to the family, and said the company was checking reports that it had been warned Muliaga needed power for the oxygen machine. The company restored electricity to the house on Wednesday after learning of her death.

Sheehan said the familyâ??s bills would prove Muliaga was trying to pay the account, and received no warning the power would be shut off. He declined to say how much she owed.

State Owned Enterprises Minister Trevor Mallard said there were reports the family had been warned about the overdue account.

â??The correct authority to investigate this and sort out the facts is the police,â? Mallard said, adding the government would expect â??full accountabilityâ? if the company was found to be culpable.

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Someone in charge at the Power Company needs to be held responsible for this.
Things like this should never happen.